Joint Declaration of the Heads of State Bucharest 9 meeting

We, the Presidents of the Republic of Bulgaria, the Republic of Estonia, Hungary, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic and the President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic, gathered in Warsaw in the Bucharest 9, platform for consultation and dialogue, to reaffirm our commitment to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, share views on a wide range of challenges and threats to the Euro-Atlantic area, and emphasize our resolve to address them together with our Allies and Partners.

Reaffirming that NATO remains the cornerstone of our security and collective defence, and that our countries stand firm in solidarity, committed to developing our cooperation to better address all security concerns and contribute to the Alliance’s tasks;

Confident that the upcoming NATO Summit will mark further strengthening of the Alliance, most notably its deterrence and defence posture, by reconfirming the strong commitment and resolve to effectively deter and defend against current and emerging security threats and challenges as well as to project stability beyond Alliance borders, in the spirit of the 360 degrees approach, including by increasing Alliance’s readiness and responsiveness;

Welcoming the increased engagement of our Allies in the region, as a sign of solidarity and strong commitment to our security, and in this context underlining the United States and Canada’s enhanced military presence in Europe, which reconfirms the strength of the Transatlantic bond;

Noting with deep concern that Russia’s continued multifaceted, destabilising actions and policies beyond NATO borders as well as on the Alliance territory, together with its continuous build-up of offensive capabilities for both conventional and hybrid warfare, and its aggressive behaviour, threaten our long-standing vision of a Europe whole, free and at peace, fundamentally challenge the Alliance and damage the Euro-Atlantic security;

Deploring the fact that progress towards solving the conflicts in our neighborhood remains stalled as the illegal and illegitimate annexation of Crimea, destabilization of eastern Ukraine and challenge to the territorial integrity of Georgia and the Republic of Moldova continue;

Being also very concerned by the complex threats and challenges stemming from the Southern neighborhood, ranging from conventional warfare, terrorism, massive flows of migrants, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery;

Reaffirming our commitment to NATO’s Open Door Policy;

We have agreed that:

1. We remain fully committed to implementing all the initiatives developed as part of NATO’s forward presence on the Eastern flank, as well as the measures adopted so far with the aim of strengthening Allied deterrence and ability to defend collectively all NATO members on land, in the air, at sea, and in the cyber space. We welcome progress made so far in implementing the forward presence from the Baltic to the Black Sea and we are ready to strengthen the efforts to ensure that it is up to the task and fully enabled across all domains, through Allied contributions, exercises, planning and command arrangements.

2. The 2018 NATO Summit should further strengthen the Alliance’s unity and, in the spirit of 360 degrees approach, deliver a comprehensive response to the current security challenges, including against the hybrid threats the Allies are confronted with. In order to ensure coherence across Allied efforts and further improve the Alliance’s overall readiness, we need to build on pivotal decisions made in Wales and Warsaw. Due attention should be given to ensuring a coherent and integrated approach to the defence of the Eastern flank, underpinned by an effective and region-focused NATO Command Structure, reinforced maritime posture, strong air defence and a viable reinforcement strategy. Therefore, increasing readiness and responsiveness of NATO forces and military mobility across of Alliance’s territory is essential for deterrence and defence on the NATO Eastern flank. We remain committed to further progress in this direction.

3. To reinforce NATO’s overall capabilities, we will continue investing in our own security. We are determined to ensure that our countries continue to spend or – respectively – move towards the goal of spending 2% of the GDP on defence, as decided at the NATO 2014 Summit in Wales. We will continue to invest in modern capabilities and contribute to NATO’s operations and missions.

4. We remain firm on our commitment to project stability beyond Alliance territory to counter complex threats and challenges ranging from conventional and hybrid warfare, terrorism, mass migration and WMD proliferation. Developing defence capacities of our partners and their resilience in facing current threats and challenges remains a priority in the Alliance neighborhood. We support the need for a more strategic, focused and coherent NATO approach to the South, including improving Alliance ability to anticipate crisis, and expect further decisions in this respect at the upcoming NATO summit. We will continue to support and further intensify our common fight against terrorism, which poses direct threat to our populations, including through our contributions to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, as well as through our participation in NATO’s operations, missions and activities, the Resolute Support Mission and the planned NATO training mission in Iraq being at the forefront.

5. NATO’s approach to Russia based on enhanced deterrence and defence posture, and openness to political dialogue, as decided at the Warsaw Summit, continues to be our policy and the way forward. The desired results of the dialogue with Russia will be achieved when Moscow returns to fully respecting international law and its international obligations and NATO deterrence and defence is strong.

6. NATO’s successful Open Door Policy effectively contributes to strengthening peace, good governance, security and stability in Europe and beyond. We encourage those partners who aspire to join the Alliance to continue to implement the necessary reforms and decisions to prepare for membership, including fully complying with their commitments and obligations. We will continue to support them and expect that the upcoming NATO Summit will decide on the next steps towards this goal, judging each on its merits. NATO’s partnerships are essential to increase our partners’ resilience, help them advance reforms and support their European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations. We will continue to make best use of them in assisting Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine as well as the Western Balkan countries in pursuing their respective aspirations.

7. We remain committed to the further implementation of all agreed areas of cooperation between NATO and the EU in line with the Warsaw Joint Declaration. We consider it necessary to highlight the achievements and underscore the priority areas of cooperation in a new and result-oriented NATO-EU Joint Declaration. Priority areas of NATO-EU cooperation include but are not limited to: military mobility and improving infrastructure, countering hybrid threats, enhancing resilience in partner countries from the Western Balkans and the Eastern neighborhood, cyber security and strategic communications. Special attention should be given to military mobility, building upon the EU Action Plan. The future of EU Security and Defence Policy lies on inclusiveness, non-duplication, close coordination and synergy with NATO. Therefore, we actively contribute to shaping PESCO by participating in concrete projects to fill identified capability gaps.

We reiterate our commitment to continue meeting in the Bucharest 9, platform for consultation and dialogue, as a means to promote joint approaches and to further contribute to Euro-Atlantic security.